Applause greeted Allentown City Council’s unanimous approval of an ordinance that gives it much more control over city contracts.
The new law requires City Council approval of professional services, contracts over $40,000 and any change orders exceeding a 10 percent threshold.
Council president Ray O’Connell said Wednesday night’s vote was just the first of a three-pronged approach council is taking to address issues raised by the ongoing FBI investigation into pay-to-play deals in City Hall.
Next up will be proposed anti-pay-to-play legislation.
“We’ll see where that goes,” O’Connell said. “I think we have a lot of support for that.”
O’Connell’s rules, chambers, intergovernmental relations and strategy committee will discuss that anti-pay-to-play proposal 5:30 p.m. Sept. 24. All council members have been invited to attend that meeting.
Like the increased council oversight of contracts, the anti-pay-to-play proposal is spearheaded by council member Jeanette Eichenwald.
“More needs to be done to improve the way contracts are distributed in the city of Allentown,” Eichenwald said.
O’Connell said the third prong of reform will involve strengthening the city’s ethics ordinance.
Eichenwald wants city council to initiate its own investigation of any criminal wrongdoing in City Hall and promised applauding residents she will do her best to make that happen.
"Suspicion and perception are injurious to the city of Allentown," said Eichenwald.
She said the city charter gives council subpoena powers and allows council to investigate any city department, office or agency. She will work with the city solicitor’s office to develop a proposed ordinance she will submit for council’s consideration.
Mayor Ed Pawlowski apparently is a prime target of the federal investigation. One resident during the council meeting called on Pawlowski to step down.
Eichenwald hopes the FBI investigation of possible connections between campaign contributions and awarding city contracts “is the impetus that will bring about change.”
She said there’s a saying that “there isn’t any bad that doesn’t bring with it some good.”
Council member Jeff Glazier’s budget and finance committee recommended approval of the contracts bill at its Sept. 10 meeting.
“I would encourage all my colleagues to support this bill on final passage,” said Glazier before Wednesday’s vote.
The bill was sponsored by Eichenwald and council member Julio Guridy.
“This was the first test of whether council was serious about changing things,” commented resident Robert Trotner.
The ordinance, introduced as Bill 39, is modeled after legislation already on the books in Bethlehem.
Guridy said a difference is that Bethlehem City Council only approves contracts over $50,000.
Resident Michael Donovan said a $40,000 cap on unapproved city contracts in Allentown was proposed when Donovan served on council from 2008-12, “but at the time there was no political will” to move forward with that proposal.
“It’s a fundamental American principle that that legislative body of any government entity has oversight checks and balances on the executive, except apparently for Allentown,” said resident Joe Hilliard.
Since 2006, claimed Hilliard, “one person in the city had the power to authorize $149,750,000 in contracts —no oversight, no discussion, no debate, no chance for the public to have any foreknowledge of this if they had any concerns.”
Hilliard doesn’t see “how anybody with any sense of good government or any ethical principles at all” would allow one person to have the power to award nearly $150 million in taxpayer dollars “with zero oversight.”
Hilliard, whose comments also were applauded, called that an unbelievable amount of power that led to corruption or at least the perception of corruption.
Earlier in the meeting, Hilliard encouraged city council to pass a resolution urging Pawlowski to step down for the good of the city “until all these legal issues are cleared up.”
He said council has no authority to remove the mayor and that he believes in “innocent until proven guilty.”
But Hilliard also said Pawlowski, who was not at the council meeting, “is acting like a paranoid freak. He’s sweeping his office for bugs, using burner cellphones and patting down his best friend for wires.”
Hilliard predicted the federal investigation is going to take a long time and asked: “Are we really going to put the city of Allentown through the constant agony of a mayor who can’t even deal with his duties? Has he even been in City Hall since all of this has been happening? Is he just hiding in his home round-the-clock? He can’t be a mayor.”
Trotner suggested city council should “put a bell on” Pawlowski “so you know where he’s going and what he’s doing all the time.”
Hilliard made remarks and laughed loudly from his seat when resident Janet Keshl stood to defend the mayor.
“Call me delusional, but I still have faith in our mayor,” Keshl said. “I don’t think this is a good time to try to unseat him. Nobody can prove that he did anything wrong. I pray to God that he didn’t do any wrongdoing.”
Resident Rich Fegley said council has a responsibility to monitor what the mayor and the city’s administration do.
Among the seven members of council, Fegley said only one — Eichenwald — has been vocal about the FBI investigation.
“The more you all remain silent, I question the six of you about what your job is,” Fegley said. “If you’re up here to just vote yes or no you’re not helping the city.”
His voice rising, Fegley said: “You all sit silent and look down. It’s creepy, looking at you all. I’m ashamed to have you as six council members. You should all be ashamed if you don’t speak up.”
Despite council’s unanimous vote to gain more control over contracts later in the meeting, Fegley did not change his mind because “they really don’t talk about it. It’s a good step in the right direction, but I’m still not happy.”
Eichenwald is not the only council member who has spoken out about the City Hall investigation.
At the budget and finance committee meeting last week, council member Daryl Hendricks, a former city police officer, told Channel 69 News: "It's quite obvious to me, with my background in law enforcement, that it appears the mayor has been involved in something that's unethical and quite frankly illegal.
"I'm disappointed and I believe he needs to make some tough decisions and hopefully we can get this cleared up sometime in the near future and remove this cloud that's now over the city of Allentown," he said.